


Beyond Kerberos

by MaddKat



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, Gen, Kidge Parenting AU, Will add more tags as the chapters progress, characters are 18+
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-03
Updated: 2017-04-16
Packaged: 2018-10-14 13:18:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 3,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10537293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaddKat/pseuds/MaddKat
Summary: This is just a place where you can comment a prompt, either shippy or genfic, and if I like it, I'll write a little blurb! (Note that I reserve the right to reject any prompt/pairing for any reason.)





	1. Prompts

### calming starter sentences (http://bleukobalt.tumblr.com/post/85946240580/calming-starter-sentences)

  * "Its okay, I'm here."
  * "I'm not going to leave you."
  * "Everything is okay."
  * "I'm going to protect you."
  * "I believe in you."
  * "Hear my heartbeat? Just focus on that."
  * "You'll be alright, no one can hurt you now."
  * "You're not going to lose me."
  * "I love you."
  * "I'll stay right here, okay?"
  * "Just breathe."
  * "I'm okay, you're okay, we're okay."
  * "You're everything to me."
  * "I don't care what they think, to me, you are perfect."
  * "Do you want to talk about it?"
  * "You don't have to be alone."



Or, y'know, other prompts that aren't on the list. ^^;


	2. Don't Have a Cow (Gen)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> MandaWrites requested Keith and Lance with "I can't believe I'm sitting in space jail with you of all people."

"You did  _what_ with the cow??"

"I sold it! For fifty credits. Pidge needed an adapter for her gaming console, and since it was  _our_ cow in the first place, then it was  _ours_ to sell," Lance retorted.

"That was  _stupid._ " Keith sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I can't believe I'm sitting in space jail with  _you_ of all people, because of that stupid cow!"

"How was selling my own cow stupid?"

"Because,  _Lance_... _"_ Keith paused and took a deep breath. "Because the man you stole it from thought it was  _his._ And now he's pressing charges. And he's gonna  _win_ , because a human kid and a  _half-Galra_ stole his  _property._ Who's the jury gonna believe? The jury who, I might add, are vehemently  _anti_ - _Galra."_

 _"_ Just chill. I'll get us out of this." Lance got to his feet and inspected the door tho their cell. A tiny window and an emergency button were their only ways of contacting the outside world.

"No. Whatever scheme you've got, stow it," Keith snapped.

" _You_ stow it. All you've been is moody."

"Because I got arrested along with you, and I didn't even  _do_ anything!"

"Ha!" Lance laughed, peering through the window. "You drove the getaway speeder. That's aiding and abetting."

Keith groaned and flopped onto the bench.

"Face it, Keith, we're not gonna get out of here before the trial unless we stir up a little more trouble."

Keith sighed. "Fine. What did you have in mind?"

Lance paused, an impish grin on his face. "The ol' 'help-I'm-sick-but-not-really' plan."

Keith raised an eyebrow. "Oh, really. I suppose you think you're a good enough actor to convince the guards?"

"Nah, no way. You are, though."

"Excuse me?"

"You're half-Galra. The atmosphere here isn't compatible with your biology."

"What? I'm fine-- _Oh."_ Keith frowned, then coughed.

"Louder," Lance said, looking out the window.

Keith obliged, coughing hard enough to sting his throat. Lance slapped the button repeatedly, hollering at the window. "Help! He can't breathe!"

A guard approached, his steps slow and tired. "What do you want?" he snarled.

"He can't breathe. The atmosphere here isn't good."

Keith wheezed, gagging and silently pleading with the guard.

"He was breathin' fine earlier," the guard said.

"But he's not now, obviously!" Lance snapped. "He's  _dying!_ Are you just going to stand there and do  _nothing?"_

"What's he to you?"

Lance's jaw dropped.  _"Excuse me??_ He's my  _friend!_ Now open this door and help him!"

The guard sighed and unlocked the door. Keith sprang to his feet and dove for his knees, knocking him to the floor.

"Nice!" Lance exclaimed, waltzing out after him. The guard blinked at Keith, and Keith put a finger to his own lips. He grabbed the guards blaster, set it to "stun," then shot the guard.

"Let's move," Lance said. Keith tossed the blaster to Lance and fell in behind him, a small smile quirking his mouth.

"Are we really friends?" he asked in a teasing whisper.

"Duh, yeah. Why else would we  _both_ be in space jail," Lance replied. Keith shook his head with a smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why does Keith give Lance the blaster? Because Lance is their best sharpshooter, and Keith knows it. :)


	3. Sprained Ankle (Kidge Parenting AU)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> MandaWrites requested "please put me down it's just a sprained ankle" for the Kidge parenting AU.

“Hey, Pidge, can you come outside for a sec?” Keith called through the open kitchen window. He stood outside, hammer in hand, nails in the other, looking at the shutters he’d just replaced. He wasn’t sure about how they looked, though. The paint scheme had seemed fine when they’d bought them, but now, when the red shutters were against the white house, they seemed…off. Like the shade was wrong, or something. Or maybe it was the lighting…  
  
“One sec!” Pidge called. Keith heard her turn the water off and move to the back door. The screen door opened and shut, and he heard Pidge step outside. Keith put the nails in the coffee can.  
  
“Augh!” Pidge’s cry made Keith jump, and he dropped the hammer.  
  
“What?” Keith exclaimed, hurrying over to her. Pidge knelt on the ground, teeth clenched, and for a split second Keith thought something was wrong with the baby, until he saw her clutching her ankle.  
  
“Ohhh, man,” she groaned. Keith knelt next to her, a hand on her back.  
  
“You okay?” he asked. “What’d you do?”  
  
“I tripped on that piece of wood,” Pidge said, nodding towards the old shutter Keith had carelessly left lying too close to the walkway.  
  
“Oh, no. Pidge, I’m sorry,” Keith said.  
  
“I’ll be all right.” Pidge gripped Keith’s arm and slowly rose to her feet. But she cried out when she put weight on her ankle, falling against Keith and leaning against him.  
  
“Come on, let’s get you inside,” Keith said. He scooped her up, one arm around her shoulders and the other under the crook of her knees.  
  
“Keith, what—Keith, put me down, it’s just a sprained ankle.”  
  
“Eh, I can carry you,” Keith replied, carefully stepping over his mess and kicking the screen door back open. He carried Pidge to the couch, where he set her down and instructed her to sit back. She propped her foot up on the ottoman, and Keith found her an ice pack.  
  
“Keith,” Pidge said.  
  
“Yeah?”  
  
A wry smile quirked at Pidge’s lips. “Go clean up your mess.”  
  
Keith nodded. “I’m sorry about that.”  
  
“Well, it’s not your fault I tripped.” Pidge shrugged. “It’s kinda hard to see my feet.”  
  
“I’m just glad you didn’t fall.”  
  
Pidge smiled and waved goodbye as Keith stepped back outside.


	4. So I'm Gonna Love You Now, Like it's All I Have (Jaxia)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> No one asked for this, but it's awful short to go by itself.

_"That's it. It's OVER, Raynia."_

_"Jax, no, please--"_

_Jax's eyes narrowed. "I SAID it's over. You've got the kids, you've got the ship. I'm done. We're done."_

_"Jax!"_

_"Shut up!" Jax stooped and picked up his bag. "I don't want to hear another word. You worry to much, you think too much, and I'm tired of dealing with you." He slung his bag over his shoulder and turned._

_"Jax, no..." Raynia stood rooted in place, the baby on her hip, Leola hanging onto her pant leg. She reached out for Jax, but she couldn't follow. Her words got stuck in her throat, her eyes filling with tears. "JAX!"_

_Jax raised a hand in a jaunty goodbye, not even bothering to look back._

_Leola started to cry, and Raynia looked down at her. She swallowed, trying to smoosh the storm of panic in her chest down and away, so she could soothe her daughter. But again, her voice choked up, and all that came out was a small gasp._

_"Oh, and Raynia?"_

_Raynia looked up, but Jax was gone. She looked around, frantically looking for him, ready to plead with him, beg him to stay--_

"Raynia."

Raynia opened her eyes to a dark cabin: the little living space on the top half of the shuttle. The console lights on the wall just barely illuminated Jax's face, a tender smile playing across his features as he gently nudged her shoulder.

"Just a dream, Little One," he said, using the nickname he'd given her a long,  _long_ time ago. He didn't call her that much anymore, but when he did--as it did now--it always sent a warm feeling through her, helping to dispell the tension in her chest.

Raynia blinked and sat up. The tension in her chest, while having lessened a little, hadn't quite gone away. She rubber her eye and looked at him; Jax ran a hand up and down her arm.

"You didn't leave."

"Of course not," Jax said. "I won't ever leave you."

Raynia shut her eyes, and Jax drew her close. She felt the sturdiness of his shoulders, buried her face against his chest, took in his familiar scent. She breathed deeply, letting the secure feeling erode the uneasiness in her chest and shoulders.

"Better?" Jax asked. Raynia pulled back and nodded.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Raynia frowned. "You were leaving," she whispered. "You left me and the children."

"Well, there's two things that ought to tell you it's just a dream." Jax smoothed some hair out of her face. "One, I'm not going to leave you. Two, we only have one child."

And with that, all the unease that had been washed away with Jax's soothing tone and comforting touch came roaring back. Raynia shank back a bit, ducking her head. "Um. About that." She swallowed. She'd been keeping this a secret for a few days now, playing off her nausea and headaches as just a minor illness. But a quick reading from the tricorder had sent her heart pounding and her hands shaking.

"We're going to have another youngling," Raynia whispered.

Jax frowned. "You sure you're all the way awake, Raynia?" he asked.

Rayia looked up at him and nodded. "Yes."

Jax looked at her, then down at the blanket. His brows knit together, but he said nothing.

Raynia's hands tightened around the blanket. "I'm sorry, I should have told you sooner, I was just scared to."

Jax looked up at her. "Why?"

"Because we've been on this shuttle for almost two years, looking for a place to live, and trying to raise Leola, and you've been stressed out, and I...I was hoping it might have been a glitch..." She swallowed. "Except it's not a glitch, and we  _really_ have to find a place to settle down...Because, Jax, I don't want to raise two younglings on a  _shuttle_."

"I know." Jax paused, looking away. He sighed, long and deep. Rayia remained silent.

"I'm sorry," Raynia finally whispered.

"Don't be." Jax looked at her, and his expression had softened, a smile in his eyes. "We'll work it out." He shrugged. "The baby is  _ours_ , and we'll figure out how two raise two younglings  _together._

Rayia reached out and clasped his hand, a small smile on her face. Jax huffed a humorless laugh, looking down and shaking his head. 

"What?" Raynia asked.

"Oh, nothing." A grim smile tightened his features. "It's just going to be a  _lot_ harder to ever go back home."

Raynia ducked her head. He was right. Not only had they stolen Leola back almost two years ago, but they also had  _another_ youngling on the way. And they were  _both_ still underage.

"Oh well. It is what it is." Jax looked back up at Raynia and tilted her head up towards him. "It's going to be all right."

"We've done all right this far. We can do this," Raynia replied. Jax smiled, genuine this time, and leaned forward and kissed her.


	5. Les Chats

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Haikyuufan requested "Could you do a gen origin of Voltron for "I may have accidentally sort of adopted 5 cats"?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Zarkon and Alfor were buddies at some point when Voltron was in its infancy. Why else would Zarkon be the old Black Paladin?

"What is that  _sound?"_ Alfor wondered aloud, marching with the Galran soldier through the halls of the castle. A series of bumps, some loud, some soft, echoed from the Lions' hangars. Alfor dearly hoped nothig was wrong; they'd only  _just_ been able to form Voltron, and that had been an incredibly tulmutious adventure, to put it mildly.

Zarkon cocked his head. "I have no idea." He glanced at Alfor, who frowned, and they quickened their pace. There were alarms in place, in case something went  _horribly_ wrong, but they weren't going off.

They reached the hangars, where a bizarre scene greeted them: all the Lions were  _moving,_ as if on their own. They appeared to be chasing something, but they weren't in combat mode, as far as Alfor could tell. Their tails twitched, and they pounced on something...

Beside Alfor, Zarkon let out a laugh. Alfor then saw what he was looking at: the Lions were chasing a large red dot that darted around the hangar floor. Alfor glanced up and around, and spotted his daughter, controlling a large laser pointer. Allura spied him and immediately shut it off, seeming to cringe a little. 

"Allura, come down here, please," Alfor said. The Lions looked around for a moment, then meandered back to their individual hangars.

"I'm sorry, Father, I really wanted to add some coding, and it didn't hurt the Lions at all!" Allura explained all in a rush when she neared Alfor and Zarkon.

Zarkon's mouth twitched, but he said nothing. Alfor looked at the Lions, then sighed.

"I will have to review the coding myself, to be sure," he said. 

"I'm sorry, Father," Allura said again.

Alfor shrugged. "I doubt you did anything to harm the Lions." He shrugged. "We may or may not have accidentally adopted five cats."

Allura grinned, and Zarkon hid a laugh behind his hand.


	6. Late Night (Jaxia)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, no one asked for this. I wrote this back in February. ^^

Jax stood alone in the back of the lab, his face lit solely by the luminescence of the holographs before him. He swiped through the screens, simple English sentences displayed in front of him with their Deltan translation underneath. He frowned, squinting at the display, his lips moving slightly as he tried to work out the sentences without relying on the translation.

“Welcome to our planet…we…greet of you…in pieces…” Jax blinked; that didn’t sound right. He uncovered the Deltan translation. “Oh. In _peace.”_ He pulled a hand down his face and sighed. He rolled his shoulders and decided to go over some simpler phrases.

“I am called Jax…she is called Raynia…” Jax glanced back at where Raynia sat at a computer console, working on a lab. He smiled. “I love her very much.”

They’d booked the lab so late so that Raynia could finish her homework. She’d felt the need to redo a lab Jax was convinced she’d done perfectly the first time around. Nevertheless, Jax accompanied her to the lab at almost midnight, promising to stay with her till she finished.

Jax continued to swipe through the vocabulary, quietly working on his pronunciation. It was getting easier to stop rolling his r’s so much, though homonyms continued to be a problem. Red Lion became Read Lion, and he’d had all kinds of trouble with “accept” versus “except.” Come to think of it, at the moment he wasn’t sure which was which. He pulled up the homonym list he’d made awhile ago, upon Raynia’s suggestion on a day he’d been about to throw his translator at the wall.

He went through the list for a good ten minutes, reviewing the words and their definitions, as well as their pronunciation. He got to the bottom of the list, yawned, and scrolled back to the top. He didn’t hear Raynia approach, but he jumped a little when he felt her arms wrap around his waist and her forehead press against his back. He smiled and rested a hand atop hers.

“You done?” he asked.

“Mm,” Raynia replied.

“How’d you do?”

“…hundred p’cent…” Raynia murmured.

“That’s my girl.”

“How’s your English?”

“Very good,” Jax replied in English. “At least, I hope so,” he added, reverting back to Deltan.

“Good,” Raynia hummed, snuggling against Jax’s back.

Jax glanced at the chronograph; it was well after midnight and Raynia had military duties in only five hours.

“You need to get some sleep, Little One,” Jax said gently.

“I know.” Raynia pulled back and Jax turned around. She yawned, her eyes falling halfway shut. “’m so tired…”

“I know.” Jax rested a hand against her face, and she nestled her head against his palm. He stroked her cheek with his thumb, for a moment lost in thought over her course load, her third night in a _row_ where she’d stayed up this late, the shaking in her hands, the bags under her eyes…she remained as beautiful as ever, but her workload was running her into the ground.

“Will you walk me back, please?” Raynia asked meekly. “I think I’m about to fall over.”

“Of course.” Jax smiled and took her hand. He closed the holographic display and stuck it in his pocket. Raynia sidled up next to him, and he let go of her hand and draped an arm around her shoulders as they left the lab.


	7. Space Mice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, here's another old one I did awhile back.

You turn over in your bunk for probably the twentieth time in the last half hour. The light sheets and the cool air breathing out of the ventilation shaft are a welcome respite to the hot and muggy slave camp you’d been in not even two days ago.

Yet sleep evades you, taunting your heavy lids closed only to throw unwanted memories dancing in front of you. _The Galrans sneering at your limp, the other prisoners murmuring in pity when your fever refused to break…_

You sit up and rub your eyes and push the covers off. And despite the gentle chill of the room, your hands are sweating and your bed feels far too hot. So you throw off the covers and stumble to the door.

Shiro’s room is right next to yours, and you tiptoe past it, so quiet you can’t even hear your own footsteps. You’re not about to wake him, not after what you’ve done. Had you been strong enough, had you staved off the panic, you could have fought in the gladiator arena. Maybe you and Shiro could have worked together to get out of there.

But no. Instead you were paralyzed by terror and Shiro had to break your leg to keep you safe. And in turn, the Galrans broke Shiro.

Katie’s room is next. And you pause outside her door, listening for her breathing like you’ve always done when you both were home and you’d get up to get some water. It’s the protective older sibling instinct, and some small part of you relaxes when you hear her quiet, even breaths.

And then that small part seizes up again, because you realize you forced your baby sister to grow up. Katie cut her hair and faked her identity, putting everything aside and risking _everything_ to find you and Dad.

Your eyes start to burn and you hurry along. The thought of Dad still stuck in the slave camp while you get to rest and recover on the castle ship physically _hurts_. Your legs tremble and you grit your teeth, forcing back the tears as you stumble past Lance, Keith, and Hunk’s rooms.

A pale blue ambient light illuminates the dining area, and that is where you finally collapse. You bury your head in your arms and though they’re nearly silent, the sobs grip you and shake you until you’re weak and trembling. Logic dictates that none of this is your fault—you couldn’t help being caught by the Galrans, you couldn’t stop Shiro from saving your life, and you were laid up in the infirmary while Dad was far away when Katie’s face broke into your fevered hallucinations.

But you can’t help wearing the blame like a smothering blanket, and your tears soak through your sleeves.

The tiniest of squeaks sounds close to your ear, and you jerk your head up. The space mice sit on the table by your elbow, all gazing at you, their little noses twitching. You gulp and watch them, and they step a little closer. You remember how they sat on Katie’s shoulder earlier that day, and you smile a bit and scratch one of them behind the ears. Its fur is _soft,_ like velvet, and the rest crowd around your hand and elbow.

And for a few minutes you’re distracted enough that the guilt doesn’t press so heavily. The space mice climb up your arm and nuzzle into your neck, and you squirm and fight back a tickled giggle. One sits on the table still, gazing at you, and you rest your chin on your crossed arms and gaze back. You reach out and scratch behind its ears again. Its eyes close, enjoying the warmth of your hand, and it looks so peaceful that your own lids start to droop again. Your hand falls to the table, and the last thing you’re aware of before finally drifting off is the little mouse nuzzling your hand and curling up against your palm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PS I think I might be taking a break with the prompts.


End file.
